Series

Winner(s)

First Broadcast

Original channel

Preceded by

Succeeded by

"You know, there was a time when this was an innocent little show! Lots of nice people, lots of cute robots! So what happened? Now, they're killing machines, and that's just the roboteers! As for the robots, there's more weapons in the pits than in Rambo 1, 2 and 3! Yes folks, things have gone seriously out of hand, but do we care? No!"

— Craig Charles' introduction

Heat C of Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars was the third of twelve heats which determined the Semi-Finalists of Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars. The episode was originally broadcast on May 8, 2002 on BBC Choice and repeated on June 7, 2002 on BBC Two.

Plunderbird 5 began by charging S3 into an unoccupied CPZ. The two robots left the CPZ and moved into the middle of the arena, S3 tearing off a small piece of its adversary's armour. Then, as Plunderbird 5 pushed S3 into the arena wall, the 1 Law Associates' robot ripped into its side. Plunderbird 5 continued to press S3, but temporarily caught fire as it moved over a flame jet.

"It looks very destructive, S3."

— Jonathan Pearce

S3 attacked again, clipping Plunderbird 5's weapon with its flywheel, causing it to fall off of its external piston, rendering it useless. It then proceeded to rip off most of the armour protecting Plunderbird 5's right wheels, causing Plunderbird 5 to eventually stop moving near the top left-hand CPZ.

S3 continues to rip Plunderbird apart

"I know that they've been here before in Robot Wars with Sting, but this is a new machine in S3 and it looks absolutely awesome!"

— Jonathan Pearce as S3 slices into Plunderbird 5 once more

Sir Killalot then picked up Plunderbird 5 and carried it over to the floor flipper, during which point part of the drivetrain, with two wheels and part of the frame still attached, broke off and fell out of Plunderbird 5's right side. It was then thrown by the floor flipper, and S3 got in one more hit before cease was called.

MouseTrap got the first attack in, scoring a blow with the guillotine as Shredder rode up the front of MouseTrap. Shredder responded by attacking the side of MouseTrap, scratching the armour.

"Shredder looks like an old fashioned tape machine turned on its side."

— Jonathan Pearce

Shredder reverses into Oblivion

MouseTrap moved away before coming in with another slam of weapon, narrowly missing Shredder. Shredder managed to attack side of MouseTrap once more, inflicting more scores. MouseTrap raced across the arena to activate the pit, with Shredder slamming MouseTrap into the release button. Afterwards, in a complete blunder, Shredder reversed onto the opening pit, eliminating it from competition.

"The arena, OH, pit release button has been pressed and they drove straight into it, Shredder! No sooner had we heard the siren, that means the pit release button had been activated. They reversed straight into it!"

Stinger started by spinning around and attacking Hippobotomus' sides. It came in again and connected with a slam to Hippobotomus' weapon arm, before managing to dislodge parts of the armour with subsequent slams.

"They were hoping to 'cement' a place in the next round, but I don't think that's going to happen now!"

— Jonathan Pearce as Hippobotomus is damaged by Stinger

Dead Metal slices into Hippobotomus

Stinger comes under pressure from Sir Killalot in the closing seconds

Stinger continued to attack and connected with two more slams to the top of Hippobotomus, before it managed to force Stinger back with a push. The action drifted towards the CPZ as Hippobotomus drove into the arena wall, before Hippobotomus found itself in Dead Metal's claws. The House Robot attacked it, slicing into the top of the sandpit. Finally, Hippobotomus managed to escape, but a piece of the machine fell off and the top of the robot had become dislodged. In a dramatic turn of events, Stinger then drove into Sir Killalot's CPZ.

"Well that was very nearly suicidal driving by Stinger!"

— Jonathan Pearce as Stinger is picked up by Sir Killalot

A word of advice for Ellen McBride

Killalot picked up the thwackbot, but cease was called and the judges put Stinger through. The victory from Stinger though clearly upset the daughter of the Hippobotomus team, and to make up for it, the Stinger team gave her a cardboard replica of Stinger's weapon, which she then used to prod them with in revenge, after advice from her brother.

Guzunderbot drove away from General Carnage 2 to begin with, making no offensive move, before General Carnage 2 was able to catch up to the slow machine. General Carnage 2 slipped underneath Guzunderbot and lifted it up but not over with its first flip. Guzunderbot landed back onto the flipper of General Carnage 2 though, and at the second time of asking, Guzunderbot was toppled over, briefly leaving General Carnage stuck on top of it.

"Now, have they got a srimech - a self-righting mechanism? They think they obviously do have one, but I'm not too sure whether they can right themselves."

General Carnage 2 got in the first attack, flipping the invertible Stinger. Stinger then spun, hitting General Carnage 2 on the side. Stinger scored another glancing blow, with General Carnage 2 responding by throwing Stinger over again.

"General Carnage looks patient and measured out there."

— Jonathan Pearce

Refbot carries out his countdown of General Carnage 2

Sir Killalot carries General Carnage 2 to its doom

Stinger deflected aside General Carnage 2's drive forward with another side slam, before General Carnage 2 came in a series of flips on its opponent. General Carnage 2 then appeared to stop, prompting Stinger to launch a barrage of attacks towards it. Finally, Refbot counted out General Carnage 2 before it was attacked by Shunt and Sir Killalot, thrown by the floor flipper and pitted by Sir Killalot.

"And that's the end of the general... demoted to the ranks of the defeated."

Both robots tentatively circled each other before MouseTrap decided to make its way towards the pit release button. S3 eventually caught up with MouseTrap, where it attacked the back of it before buckling the side of MouseTrap slightly.

"S3, the hammerhead shark as we called him earlier, with that vertically mounted spinning disc - awesome, as it tries to grind into MouseTrap."

— Jonathan Pearce as S3 starts on the front foot

Mousetrap's spring entangles the two

MouseTrap then fired its trap over the top of S3's weapon, clutching S3 and cutting through part of S3's back armour. MouseTrap dragged S3 into Sir Killalot's CPZ, where S3's weapon got entangled with the spring of MouseTrap and stopped. Sir Killalot dragged the two machines into the middle of the arena, both appearing to have no weapon.

"They are locked together in some ghastly dance of death!"

— Jonathan Pearce

However, MouseTrap's was still working, with its guillotine retracting. MouseTrap then drove S3 into the arena wall and slammed down with its trap weapon once more. Finally, S3 managed to move itself away from the wedge of MouseTrap, with the spring of MouseTrap also coming loose from S3's disc, which now started to spin again.

S3's last minute attack on MouseTrap

"The blade is working again on S3! Obviously the spring was retarding it somehow."

— Jonathan Pearce

MouseTrap slammed down with its guillotine onto S3's weapon, which buckled the end of MouseTrap's blade. S3 then came in with two late attacks, ripping a huge chunk from MouseTrap's side before cease was called. The judges went for S3.

Both robots made identical early movements, driving forward, spinning in a circle, and halting. Stinger started to swing with its mace, but connected no blows. S3 and Stinger reversed into each other, before S3 spun around. Stinger came in which a slam, but was deflected aside as it made contact with the disc of S3. Stinger began to spin on the spot, but S3 interrupted Stinger's usual technique, before attacking Stinger's mace, throwing it into the arena wall and into a CPZ.

"S3 looks purposeful, menacing, relentless in its pursuit of its quarry."

— Jonathan Pearce

Shunt charged across the arena and rammed and harassed Stinger before its escape. Stinger activated the pit before finally hitting S3 with its mace, but to no avail. Stinger began to slow down, and S3 pushed Stinger against an angle grinder, where it stopped moving. This was because Stinger's main drive system had been buckled by S3's disc to the point that Stinger's gears could not mesh correctly.

"And right from the word go in this heat, we thought S3 had pedigree, and S3 have recorded a very famous victory."

— Jonathan Pearce as Stinger is counted out

Stinger was counted out and thrown by the Floor Flipper, coming back to life on impact, but it was already eliminated.

Heat Winner: S3

"Folks complain about the dome, and other eyesores, but we like getting ugly, on Robot Wars!"

The third Heat of the series saw only one series newcomer, Guzunderbot, which was beaten in 32 seconds in the first round.

General Carnage 2, the robot to defeat it, is the only robot in the show's history to flip another out of the arena, but never reach the Heat Final stage in the UK Championship.

S3 was one of only two unseeded robots to win a heat in the Fifth Wars.

S3 also became the only robot in history to defeat three previous Semi-Finalists on the way to winning its Heat (Plunderbird, MouseTrap and Stinger).

This Heat consisted of four separate pairs of robot teams who would not meet here, but would face each other outside of this episode; Stinger and MouseTrap in the Series 4 semifinals, Team Torque and Team Carnage in Heat I of Series 2, Shredder and S3 in Heat D of Series 6 and Team Torque and MouseTrap in their Extreme 1 Mayhem.

Heat winner S3's team had previously entered Robot Wars with Sting, of which S3 could be regarded as the third incarnation. This means that the Heat Final could be seen as "Sting vs Stinger".

Interestingly, the introductions for Stinger, Plunderbird 5 and MouseTrap were taken from Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1. Stinger's came from its All-Stars battle against Pussycat, Plunderbird 5's from its Vengeance battles and MouseTrap's from its Mayhem qualifier.

The re-use of Plunderbird 5's introduction at the start of the battle against S3 leads to an inconsistency in the show. At the start of the fight, S3 enters the Arena first, with Plunderbird 5 clearly visible in the left entry gate, but when Plunderbird 5 is shown entering the arena, it comes through the right entry gate and is the first competitor to enter the arena.